by Leslie Cox; Friday, September 19, 2014
It has been a busy time preserving the 50 pounds (22.5 kg) of Damson plums our friends generously gifted to us. Made a few batches of jam and then put the rest into pint (500 ml) jars, added a tablespoon of amaretto and filled the jar with a hot syrup. Yum! Oh…I did reserve just enough fruits to make John a Plum Torte. Still had a few left over so threw those into a freezer bag for smoothies sometime down the road.
Damson plums make the absolute best preserves because they are tart. But…they are small-sized. Takes about sixty-five of them to tip the weigh scale at two pounds (0.9 kg). That in itself is not too bad. However, coupled with the fact Damsons are not a freestone plum…as in the pit is not easily removed when the fruit is cut in half…and you have your work cut out for you.
Because they are not freestone, I just cook the Damson plums whole for my jam. Then I fish around in the pot for the pits. It really helps if you give the jam mixture a brisk stir with a whisk. Best way to separate the pits from the flesh. The author of the recipe book, Well Preserved, stated the pits would float for easy removal. This is not true…although one or two may be spotted on top. The vast majority of the pits are floating beneath the surface in the mixture.
After one single batch and two double batches of jam (I found it was easy to double the recipe and not be in fear of the bubbling concoction overflowing onto my stove top), I was just about ready to start leaving the pits in the jam and just ladle it into my sterilized jars. Bit of a long haul, standing at the counter, stirring the mixture to fish out 130 plum pits. Neither John or I would mind picking out the pits on our toast. But as I usually gift my preserves to family and friends this may not go over so well…unless I can keep the batches separate in storage. Not always easy. In a few months, I would likely start wondering if it was a jar with plum pits…or not?
So I persevered through another two double batches of jam. And poured myself a double Scotch at the end of the day when I could finally sit and put my feet up.
Put enough jars of jam away for this year so I switched over to another preserved plum favourite…Plums in Amaretto. Delicious just over ice cream but also ideal for a Plum Upside-down Cake instead of peaches or pears. If you want a slice of this cake, you will have to put up with spitting out the pits. These plum preserves were done whole…just pricking the skin so they don’t explode in the jar when I processed them in the water bath.
Really nice to have the jars of plums “put by”. Will definitely share a few with our friends who gave us the fruit. Gotta love having the taste of summer in the middle of winter!
